Weekend Digest: The ‘Warren Buffett Bought A Cadillac’ Edition

For our weekend business and political readers:

WARREN BUFFETT BOUGHT A CADILLAC, NOT A SUBARU
The social media-sphere heated up last week when a photo of billionaire investor Warren Buffett circulated showing him in a Subaru. Was the Oracle of Omaha suggesting the Scandinavian automobile might be his preference?

Pretty much anything that billionaire Warren Buffett says or does makes news, it seems. So last week, when the influential investor was photographed sitting alone in a new Subaru Outback, a hungry blogger at AutoEvolution turned it into a story, which then went viral, including this post explaining how the no-nonsense Subaru is a perfect fit for the Wizard of Omaha’s frugal investing style.

CNBC tweeted the news to its 1.5 million followers and Subaru even jumped on board, posting the grainy photo and story on its Facebook page.

Buffett, whose modest tastes are well-known, was flabbergasted by the attention — especially because the story was wrong.

As the title of our post implies, Buffett bought a Cadillac. Read his take on the media frenzy and his reasons for keeping it American-made at this link from Forbes.

LEADERSHIP LESSONS FROM THE WIZARD OF OZ
The greatest leader in the Land of Oz wasn’t the wizard, according to a new business book. It wasn’t Dorothy or Glinda, either.

Who holds that title? You’ll be surprised. A new book from a healthcare consultant offers a different take on the 1939 movie classic.

Forbes has the details at this link.

BREAKING THE GLASS CEILING
In this Marketplace report, researchers discuss results from their studies on gender and race.

Researchers at the University of Colorado say they think they’ve solved the puzzle of why there is still a glass ceiling. They say women and minority leaders are discouraged from focusing on diversity, while white men are praised for doing so.

What do experts in the field of diversity make of the results and how should this data be applied in the workplace? Read more here. 

TESTING FOR CREATIVITY
Fast Company looks at another research report that could help employers identify creativity in job candidates.

You can tell a lot about a person’s mental state just by looking at their body language. Are they laid back, or fidgety? Are they happy, or sad? Are they confident, or shy? But one thing you can’t detect is whether he or she is smart or dumb, creative or an unimaginative lump. Or can you?

A team at Stanford headed up by Jeremy Balienson, an associate professor in the communication department, has published new research, suggesting that people’s creativity and ability to learn can be gauged by body language.

The Stanford study seems to have more application to hiring creative teams than individual candidates. Read on at this link.

A HUMANITARIAN CRISIS
President Obama met with the presidents of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador on Friday in an effort to address the horrific border crisis involving immigrant children.

Mr. Obama called the meeting with Presidents Juan Orlando Hernández of Honduras, Otto Pérez Molina of Guatemala and Salvador Sánchez Cerén of El Salvador to try to strike at the root causes of what he has called a humanitarian crisis on the border between Mexico and the United States.

Mr. Obama said the Central American presidents are “excellent partners,” and thanked them for their efforts to discourage children from making the dangerous journey to the United States. But he also urged them to do more to combat the smugglers who, for a price, are transporting the children.

But in comments to reporters after the meeting with Mr. Obama, Mr. Hernández of Honduras said that the United States must accept that demand for illegal drugs in America is in part responsible for the violence that is causing the migrants to flee their homes in Central America. He called on the United States to help his country address what he called the root of the issue.

Read more from their conversation in this New York Times report.

RUBIO, HILLARY & 2016
The Washington Post says Florida Sen. Marco Rubio may have made the “single best argument against Hillary Clinton” to date.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio called Hillary Clinton old today.

Ok, he didn’t say exactly that. In an interview with NPR’s “Morning Edition”, Rubio said that Clinton is “a 20th century candidate” who “does not offer an agenda for moving America forward in the 21st century, at least not up till now.”

The point Rubio is driving at is that Clinton is politics past, not politics future. . .

There have been older presidents and age is certainly not the only issue in the potential 2016 match-ups. Vision and a focus on the future have long been key narratives in presidential politics. Read the full story here.

PRYOR LOOKS FOR A WEDGE IN SYRIA
Politico examines recent moves made by Sen. Mark Pryor on foreign policy, an area of great importance in the U.S. Senate, but one that has not dominated his re-election campaign.

With GOP challenger Cong. Tom Cotton unafraid to lay out activist positions on foreign policy, Pryor displayed a different tack last week.

“No question, people in Arkansas do not want to be involved in Syria,” said Pryor of what he has heard from voters. It was this public sentiment together with his longer-term concerns about weapons proliferation, Pryor said, which drove the decision to force last week’s vote.

“This has been a fairly consistent theme of mine. Just make sure weapons don’t get into the wrong hands, Pryor said. “What you’re seeing there [in Syria] is an ever-shifting kaleidoscope. Our friends today, the people we train and equip, very possibly, and probably very likely, will be our enemies tomorrow.”

How might this play in the high-profile Arkansas Senate race? Read more at this link.

‘MODEST’ MID-TERM ADVANTAGE FOR GOP
A new Pew study suggests that Republicans have an enthusiasm advantage heading into this fall’s general elections, but it is not as strong as in recent cycles.

The Republican Party holds a clear advantage in voter engagement in this fall’s midterm elections, according to a new national survey by the Pew Research Center. Yet GOP voters are not as enthused and engaged as they were at this point in the midterm campaign four years ago, prior to the Republican Party winning control of the House of Representatives, or as Democratic voters were in 2006, before Democrats gained control of Congress.

The latest survey by the Pew Research Center, conducted July 8-14 among 1,805 adults, including 1,420 registered voters, finds neither party has an advantage in voter preferences. Currently, 45% say if the election were held today they would support the Republican in their district or lean toward the Republican, while 47% favor the Democrat or lean Democratic.

Read more of the results at this link.

POLLING PROBLEM
Fivethirtyeight.com takes a look at the recent Georgia Senate run-off to determine how four public polls incorrectly predicted the outcome of a GOP primary.

To say that the public polls missed the mark Tuesday night in Georgia’s runoff election would be an understatement. The four public surveys conducted in July had Jack Kingston leading David Perdue by an average of 5 percentage points in the race for the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate. That sort of lead, historically, has held up in Republican primaries in Georgia.

Perdue, of course, won by about 2 percentage points.

It would be easy to give the pollsters a pass and assign the error to low turnout. Overall, turnout was down 25 percent Tuesday from the first primary in May. But that probably wasn’t the cause of the pollsters’ error.

What might have been the cause? Read more analysis at this link.

JAMES GARNER AND THE CIVIL RIGHTS CAUSE
Legendary Hollywood actor James Garner left his mark in the entertainment world with his roles on “Maverick” and “The Rockford Files,” but his contributions to the civil rights movement were also significant.

It’s a chapter of his life that fans may not have known.

When actor James Garner decided to help organize and attend the March on Washington in 1963, he wasn’t just listening to his conscience. He and other actors who attended may have been embarking on Hollywood’s first large-scale political act since the days of McCarthyism and Hollywood’s anti-Communist blacklist.

Garner’s involvement was part of a long career of political activism. He told people he met his wife, Lois Clarke, at party for Adlai Stevenson, the liberal Democratic Party presidential candidate in 1952 and 1956. (Clarke gently corrected him in an appendix to his memoir, “The Garner Files” — they actually met at an earlier party, she said.)

Though he believed in supporting causes political and environmental, Garner was staunchly against actors holding office for the most part.

Read more about Garner’s acting life here and more on his political perspectives at this link.

MARK TWAIN’S KICK-ASS LIVING TIPS
Henrik Edberg at The Positivity Blog says renowned American author Mark Twain’s famous quotes make for fine advice on “Living a Kick-ass Life.”

For example:

6. If you’re taking a different path, prepare for reactions.

“A person with a new idea is a crank until the idea succeeds.” – Mark Twain

If you start to change or do something different than you usually do then people may react in different ways. Some may be happy for you. Some may be indifferent. Some may be puzzled or react in negative and discouraging ways.

What other life lessons can be found in Twain’s musings? Read Edberg’s take here.